Professor Diamond joins the Marine Affairs faculty in a joint appointment with the Department of Communication Studies at the Harrington School of Communication and Media. Specializing in environmental and science communication, Prof. Diamond’s research investigates how communication strategies influence public opinion on the environment. Specifically, she explores how partisan and non-partisan identities – such as parental, place-based, or conservationist identities – inform attitudes on environmental issues. Bridging the disciplines of communication, political science and environmental studies, her research has implications for efforts to overcome partisan divisions on environmental policies through framing and communication.
Professor Diamond earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Policy from Duke University in 2019 after spending several years as a strategic communication and public relations consultant for major corporations. In graduate school she specialized in environmental politics and communication, and her dissertation explored the relationship between identities and climate change attitudes in the United States. Using both experimental and qualitative research methods, she documented how non-partisan identities compete with partisan identities to inform climate change attitudes among parents, members of conservation organizations, and rural Americans.
Her current project involves a large, nationwide study of the environmental attitudes of rural Americans and how rural identities inform perspectives on environmental policies and communication effectiveness. Her future research will continue this line of inquiry with coastal fishing and aquaculture communities in New England, seeking to understand how various identities associated with these communities drive unique perspectives on environmental issues.
Professor Diamond also holds a B.S. in International Affairs and French from Georgia Tech. At Duke, she taught several courses on climate change politics and communication, including a practicum course on the United Nations climate change negotiations, where she led students to participate in four UNFCCC climate change negotiation sessions around the world. In her free time, she is an avid hiker, traveler, and explorer of the natural world.